I was going to go through a list of many male friendships in media off the top of my head that are touchy-feely and feature moments where they cry with one another, but there's no use spamming this thread trying to disprove a false premise--and doing so would be giving it legitimacy in itself. If you're really going to go with the line of argument that a gay ship is what is really antigay in fandom and it's damaging because it "limits" straight male characters' ability to be emotional with one another onscreen without being labeled gay (as if being gay is such a horrible thing to be misunderstood to be), there is really nothing that can be said that's going to shift you. What next, Aqua is a misogynist character because her existence makes the weak female characters look weak? And that is honestly the most polite answer I can give you, so feel free to have the last word on this one because I'm going to try to leave it alone from here.
It's not that those friendships don't exist, it's the way other people view them. If you google "Frodo Sam Gay", you will get a lot of people that associate their visibly emotional actions with their sexuality.
Don't you dare put words in my mouth. I never said that SoRiku was antigay or whatever you accused me of. My point was simply that I didn't want SoRiku to become canon because I liked having a friendship between guys that was emotional/touchy-feely/passionate, especially because viewers typically immediately associate that with their sexuality, thereby saying that men cannot be like that unless they're gay. I'm not saying that being gay is something lesser than or anything bad. I'm saying that other people's perception is that if two men are touchy-feely, then they are gay and those people see that as something lesser. It's a stereotype in male friendship that I want to be extinguished.
I hope that I'm conveying this correctly because I feel like what I'm trying to say is coming across correctly. I don't mean anything homophobic or offensive.
EDIT: I really thought about this to try and explain what I mean.
Example - Two straight guys in high school show affection for each other like Sora/Riku do, people will make fun of them and call them gay which is bad. Even if they were gay, it's even worse. Because it's creating this stereotype that guys cannot have relationships like that with each other or it will make them gay. It's an offensive stereotype to gays, saying that they are overly affectionate and don't act "manly" and it's offensive to straight guys that actually show emotion positioning that behaviour as somehow "weak".
Maybe there are plenty examples in media that I don't know about, but from what I've seen in real life, most guys will make fun of a guy for behaving like that with their male friend. I see jokes about it constantly in the media too. It's not that I don't want SoRiku or want SoKai over it, I just think for that specific stereotype it would be nice to have a relationship that is physically affectionate like Sora/Riku be just a friendship and NOT be the butt of a joke or ending up in a gay relationship - which is what people expect from the stereotype of that behaviour.
I guess it's more about the behaviour itself between two guys and how other people perceive it that needs to change. Two guys being overly affectionate shouldn't be seen as gay or weak or anything. But people - especially other guys - immediately label it as such and that is wrong. So, to me, having more male friendships like that visible in the media is important and can help eliminate the stupid idea that two guys cannot be affectionate with each other.
On the flip side to this, it would be great to have SoRiku actually happen where there's two guys in a gay relationship that fight, save the world, and star in video games made by Disney/Square Enix. That would also help eliminate stereotypes.